The Importance of having Career goals and objectives - Freesumes

The Importance of having Career goals and objectives The Importance of having Career goals and objectives To be successful in your career it is very important to set yourself some short-term and long-term career goals and career objectives. This isnt as complicated as it sounds. In fact, without realizing it, everyone sets themselves goals to achieve every day. OK, these may only be small or minor goals such as remembering to pay a bill, tidy up the desk, or to complete a work project, but they are goals all the same.   Setting yourself clear goals can highly improve your job satisfaction at work as well as your career progression. Lets take a closer look at why having goals are important. When it comes to working out your career goals, you need to take some time to really think about what you want to achieve in life. Do you want an increase in your earnings, a move up the career ladder, or a change in occupation? Asking yourself where you would like to be in five or ten years time is a good starting point. This will enable you to work backwards and plan for more short-term, smaller and more achievable goals with an objective to using these as tools or stepping stones towards your five or ten year target.There are three things to focus on here: Your career goals; Your objectives; and your accountability.Creating Career GoalsLong term and short term goal setting is incredibly important to career advancement. The benefits of setting a career goal gives you something to work towards achieving, but it spurs you on to take the necessary steps needed to fulfill your long-term ambitions.When setting up your career goals, be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. Set yourself smaller goals that can be spread out daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. This way you will not become overwhelmed by trying to achieve too much at once and potentially suffering a career set-back should you fail to meet your goals.It is very easy to say I want to double my salary in five years time, but achieving that goal can be made much more difficult if you try to take on too much too soon. Having a formula planned out with achievable goals set at regular intervals will be a much more significant step to take to be able to achieve those goals while experiencing great satisfaction along the way.Creating ObjectivesA good way to map out your future career is to create objectives for yourself. By knowing what direction and steps you need to take in life over the foreseeable future will keep you ahead of the curve. Setting objectives will prevent you from going forward in an aimless direction and will make you stop and think carefully before taking up opportunities that are not quite right for your long-term goals. Taking up a job offer that doesnt tick all your objective boxes can cause your career to stagnate, or may de-rail your career progression and send you completely down the wrong career path. Setting objectives for yourself will enable you to focus all your energy into pursuing more meaningful career opportunities through industry specific training and ed ucation, as well as keeping yourself motivated along the way. By creating and accomplishing small steps one at a time, you will be consistently working towards your end goal, but you will also be more productive and motivated along this path to complete these tasks because you have a firm career goal in mind.Creating AccountabilityHaving career goals is one thing, but actually taking the necessary steps to reach them is another. You may sit and imagine yourself working in your dream job, but unless you actually take those physical steps to reach your goal, a dream is all it will ever be. Unless you can hold yourself accountable for your actions, nothing will get done, no matter how many objectives you have and how much planning you put in place.By becoming accountable for what you do, and remembering to praising yourself once you have finished a set-task, you can get great satisfaction from being another step closer to your dream job. This in itself can be extremely motivating and w ill encourage you to take the next step, then the next step, and so on.You can start off creating accountability for yourself by setting an achievable goal, such as enrolling on a work-related training course, and taking on the responsibility to complete the course within a certain time-frame or by a specific deadline date. Being accountable is a really positive strength to have. It shows potential new employers exactly what you are made of and that you are able to get things done without any fuss or procrastination.Taking the time to plan out your short-term and long-term career goals in achievable steps will help you to fulfill your career ambitions. previous article